AMERICA on the passage of the healthcare legislation

AMERICA:  The National Catholic Weekly
April 5, 2010

Current Comment
The Editors

Achieving Step One

Hurrah! The yearlong battle has been won, and the health care reform bill is now the law of the land. Most Americans will benefit from the legislation: the insured who could get sick or lose their job; those with Medicare/Medicaid coverage whose drug payments fall into “the doughnut hole” gap in coverage; and especially the 32 million Americans currently without insurance. But this historic achievement is only the first step in what must be a change of attitude among the body politic. Americans must abandon the notion that health care is a luxury for the privileged and a “fringe benefit” from employers but just a wish for the unlucky rest of the population. The truth is that not only should every American have health coverage, but that most actually can have it—thanks to this bill. Our government has completed a major exercise in “promoting the general welfare,” which the Constitution mandates it to do.

Part two of the required attitude shift will be more difficult to achieve. Having decided to provide nearly universal coverage, we Americans have to decide how to keep expensive health costs under control. The bill takes steps toward containing costs but does not go far enough. How the nation exercises fiscal responsibility matters. It ought not cut off some citizens’ coverage just to rein in costs, any more than a family facing hard times would let two or three members go without food while the rest eat up. Major cost-cutting choices lie ahead. But only a real shift in attitude, one that seeks to promote the common good, will ensure that the right choices are made.